CCTV footage being published today for the first time shows Victoria Park rapist Charlie Pearce dodging into a shadowy gateway as police drive by, minutes after he brutally attacked a woman and left her for dead.

Pearce was hiding from police officers called to the scene by three young male witnesses who saw part of the attack.

Police said she would have died if she had not been found, nearly an hour later, by an unsuspected cyclist riding through the park. The cyclist saw blood on the ground, and went to investigate. She found the injured woman lying in undergrowth, and summoned help.

The footage, from a private house in Victoria Park Road, shows the defendant ducking into a driveway and lurking in the shadows as a patrol car drives past.

Charlie Pearce can then be seen on the CCTV footage dodging into the driveway (Image: Police supplied cctv)

He emerges and then darts back in, occasionally looking out to see if the coast is clear before moving on.